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Rice Football 2019: Week 4 Baylor Press Conference quotes

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Rice Football head coach Mike Bloomgren made his final comments on the Texas game as the Owls move onward to Baylor in Week 4.

Center Brian Chaffin and safety Naeem Smith joined head coach Mike Bloomgren at the podium on Tuesday. The trio made comments on the Owls’ performance against Texas, the progress they’ve seen so far and the adjustments the transfers have made since arriving at South Main.

From Mike Bloomgren
On the support from the student section…

“I want to start off by talking about our student section and how they’ve come out in full force at our first two home contests and really filled that thing up and how much we appreciate it… We look forward to having them in another great home game this weekend and hope we have their continued support all year.”

On what the big picture and the team’s progress…

“The toughest part of striving for greatness is the journey, very simply. And we know that. We acknowledge that and we all want to happen faster. I promise nobody’s in more of a rush for better than me. But we’re going to step back and keep working on the process and work on things that win games and know that we’re building a very solid culture.”

On the influence of Baylor coach Matt Rhule…

“I think coach Rhule and his football team are outstanding. I think the way he’s built them, the physical presence that they have, the physical mindset, the mental toughness that they exude on film, I’m just so impressed with what he and his coaching staff have been able to build there. Coach Rhule been a great friend and mentor me since I took this job.”

On the status of quarterback Wiley Green…

“Wiley [Green] practiced full yesterday and took some reps with the ones and has done some really good things to come back. He’s still getting treatment, but he is cleared to practice and we think that there’s a good chance — we don’t want to rush him back — but we think there’s a good chance he’s gonna play this Saturday… he’s trending the right way.”

On what he needs to see from his team against Baylor…

“Four quarters. And really being able to go with the model that we say, which is start fast, stay focused and finish strong. At no point have we really done that this year. We started really fast defensively against Army. Obviously, that was a great slugfest that was an epic game to be part of. Wake Forest, they scored 14 honest before we could blink and part of that was offensive turnover. So that’s tough.

So I look back and I just think if we can do that, if we can come out the gates and start fast and really get off the field on defense and punch one in that we do so much for our confidence right now as a football team. And I’m not saying that we’re fragile. I don’t believe we’re fragile because look at what happened when Wiley got injured and fought back against Wake, but we could use some good things to happen right now.”

On what the team is doing best right now…

“Fighting and staying together. The fact that again, at no point did we sack our bats and just go home. I think that’s the thing that would have been easy to do.”

From Brian Chaffin

On his experience since transferring from Stanford…

“It’s been awesome. I was really excited to come in here and see how much of a step they’ve taken from when we played Rice back in my days at Stanford. This program’s really headed the right direction. We got a lot of guys in here who are believing in this plan, believing in this vision and ready to continue following it and continue embracing intellectual brutality on and off the field.”

From Naeem Smith

On his adjustments since transferring from JUCO…

“I would say the biggest thing would be the mental preparation going into it. I’m definitely watching a lot more film than I ever have in my life. Just making sure that I take every day and really try to get better every day. When I’m watching film I always evaluate myself and, see if I’m really doing the best I can do.”

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Rice Football 2019: Week 3 Texas Press Conference quotes

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Coming off two tough defeats, Rice Football players and head coach Mike Bloomgren prepare for their comments prior to their Week 3 game against Texas.

Texas has taken center stage at South Main. Bloomgren, along with wide receiver Brad Rozner and linebacker Blaze Alldredge, met with the media on Tuesday to discuss the upcoming Week 3 matchup.

From Mike Bloomgren

On what the team learned from the Wake Forest game …

“The bottom line is we’re not quite there yet to beat that team. We felt like we had the ability to on the field and certainly at times, it looked like we did. But, we’ve got to keep making progress. We’re just not quite there. But, once again, better day by day. I’m proud of the guys for that and the way they’re working.”

On tangible proof of progress year over year…

“There’s a lot of things, to be honest with you. The fact that we could stand toe-to-toe and the fact that we could move the ball in short-yardage. The fact that when they overloaded the box in the run game and they were running some of their pressures, we were able to attack them through the air. We had a receiver like Bradley Rozner step up and make a few big-time plays.”

On the current state of the quarterback room…

“We played a lot of quarterbacks last year and some of them are still in the program. Evan Marshman is going to be the guy that takes reps with the twos right now. We also, obviously, have JoVoni Johnson who we believe in tremendously. He’s a very talented guy who we’re going to keep growing. I don’t expect to see him in this game this weekend, but, we have some guys that we really trust with some cool tools.”

From Brad Rozner

On the ability of the Texas secondary …

“They’re obviously going to be a little faster than us, that’s kind of why they recruited so highly out of high school but we’re just gonna have to attack them like anybody else. We’re going to bring the fight to them. We’re the underdogs.”

From Blaze Alldredge

On the improvement in the defense this season…

“Giving up quick 14 points [to Wake Forest] but battling back with a stop and getting us back to that 14-14 type game shows a resilience that we didn’t have as a defense last year, in my opinion.”

“Last year I think there were times where we just felt like we couldn’t stop people, no matter what we did. And this year, we just don’t have that feeling at all. When you give up a quick 14 to Wake Forest, it’s easy to go to your sideline and go, dang, we just can’t stop these guys. Whereas instead, it’s an organized huddle where we’re like, okay, we missed these assignments, here’s what we have to sharpen up to get the stops.”

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Rice Football: Meet Tom Stewart, the Owls’ presumptive new QB1

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For the second year under Mike Bloomgren, injuries have forced Rice football to make a change at quarterback. Meet Tom Stewart, the Owls’ tentative new QB1.

Mike Bloomgren watched with the same angst as the rest of the Rice Football team on Friday night as starting quarterback Wiley Green lay on the sideline. Green had been hit in an apparent head-to-head collision attempting to score the Owls’ first touchdown of the game. The team’s leader was down, but there was a lot of football still to be played.

So Bloomgren did what any coach would have done in that situation. He pulled the offense together, inserted the backup quarterback, and kept moving forward. This year that backup is Tom Stewart, a graduate transfer from Harvard who joined the Owls this summer.

Stewart battled. He led three touchdown drives against Wake Forest, with a fourth near-score turned away on the one-yard line. He wasn’t perfect — admitting he’d thrown too many balls low and short in his postgame comments — but he kept the Owls in the game in a trying time.

“First off, we had a lot of confidence in Tom,” Blomgren said. “This is not the first time Tom Stewart’s been in this situation. This is the world he’s lived in. Whether it’s him going into his sophomore year as a starter and getting banged up, or him going into his last year at Harvard.”

Unlike graduate transfer Shawn Stankavage who started for Rice much of last season, Stewart comes to Rice with 14 games of experience. He started his senior year, throwing for 1,614 yards and 14 touchdowns with two interceptions. On Friday, Stewart finished 19-of-30 with 185 passing yards and one touchdown. He also added a 10-yard rushing touchdown.

Rice Football, Tom Stewart
Stewart takes off for a 10-yard touchdown run, the first touchdown of his Rice football career

“It’s my first significant football since November 17th of last year.  So it’s been about 10 months since I’ve strapped the pads on and played someone else,” Stewart relayed following the loss, adding “I think I got confidence by the end of the game, that it’s the same game I’ve always been playing.”

Stewart’s team won that game. He threw for 312 yards and three touchdowns in the process.

The knock on Stewart when he transferred to Rice was never his ability; it only takes one look at his highlight film from Harvard to see his natural ability is evident. What Stewart lacked when he arrived, and has subsequently been working to master, is a complete understanding of the Rice football offense.

To call the Owls’ scheme complicated would be an understatement. As fall camp progressed, the staff could see Stewart thinking more and more as his play on the practice field grew inconsistent. He could make the throws, provided he knew where to go with the ball and who was supposed to be there to catch it.

“I think I got confidence by the end of the game, that it’s the same game I’ve always been playing.”Tom Stewart

That learning lag is what kept Stewart from ever truly having an edge in the battle for the starting quarterback job, putting him second to Green throughout camp. Now it’s real.

Stewart’s latest chance to work with the starting offense didn’t come with the benefit of a red no-contact jersey. He was sacked three times in what he called “a good learning experience… kind of getting thrown into the fire.”

It’s not going to be easy, though. If Green can’t go next week — his status is still very much so up in the air — Stewart’s first FBS start would come against a ranked Texas Longhorns squad at NRG Stadium. Wake Forest flashed plenty of speed and size on both sides of the ball. Texas is supposed to be even better.

Stewart says he’s appreciative of the chance to get his feet wet before he has to potentially play anyone else. He praised the athleticism of the Wake Forest defense, but said he kept coming back to something a former coach of his always used to say. “The essence of playing quarterback is finding the open guy and throwing it to him accurately. And if the guy’s open, it’s just like playing routes on air. You put the ball where you want and good things will happen.”

More: Takeaways from Owls’ Week 2 loss to Wake Forest

That’s easier said than done, but if the injury to Green proves to be anywhere near as serious as it looked, Stewart will get that very test. Friday’s game against the Demon Deacons will serve as Stewart’s reminder to himself, ” I was like, Oh, you know, we’re just playing football.”

There haven’t been any declarations from anyone on South Main yet, and there won’t be. Bloomgren and his staff are too seasoned to hand out free bulletin board material. But the Owls are ready to proceed with Stewart as their starter for the near future.

“We have a lot of confidence when a kid like that can get every rep. It’s gonna have tremendous value for him,” Bloomgren said, “We’ll see where it goes. But we’re going to keep coaching him and he’ll keep growing.”

Stewart is going to have to learn on the job. It won’t be easy, but the Owls have his back. 100 percent.

You can read more on Stewart and the rest of the Rice football quarterback room in The Roost’s 2019 Rice Football Season Preview
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Rice Football: Owls forge identity with physical start

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Rice Football came excruciatingly close to a program-defining win over Army, only to come up short. Even in defeat, a new identity was formed.

Pound the rock, control the clock and play great defense. Rice Football’s battle cry, per se.

That statement echoes through the halls at South Main, but it carries a different ring following Rice football’s lastest outing. The Owls dropped a one-score game on the road against Army. A game in which the Rice defense contained the run-heavy Black Knights. On the other side of the ball, the Rice offense finally began to resemble the mantra the Owls have repeated since Mike Bloomgren arrived on campus.

Against Army, Rice ran the ball 30 times on 44 offensive snaps (68.1 percent of plays), averaging 6.03 yards per carry. That marked the third time under Bloomgren the rushing offense had been that effective and amassed that large of a portion of offensive plays. But that’s about to be the new normal.

When asked about the shift in philosophy for the Owls from the Army game to the Wake Forest game in Week 2, Bloomgren was resolute.

“The 14 opportunities is really on pace with who we are. We had 49 snaps, I guess 44 official. So if you take that to a 70 play game, now we’re throwing it 25 times, and that’s about who we are,” Bloomgren said, “if we can pound the rock, we’re going to keep pounding the freakin rock and take our calculated shots. And then we’ll throw it on third down when necessary. And so I don’t think we’ll play much different”

More: Week 2 Game Preview – Rice vs Wake Forest

If that style of play is going to be truly effective, Rice is going to have to improve. Better quarterback play and more effective third downs are a must. Wiley Green had great moments against Army, but never quite seemed to settle in. He got the offense into the right calls and, for the most part, managed the game well.

As Green sees it, he says he needs to be “preparing myself to be ready to throw the ball at any point at any time.” That’s true whether its 14 times a game or 44 times. The total number of throws didn’t phase him. Despite the low point total, Green was adamant “I feel more comfortable now than I could have ever [felt before].”

There will be some differences in the Rice offensive attack on Friday against Wake Forest on Friday. The coaching staff and the players on offense know what things need to be ironed out. On the whole, though, the look isn’t expected to change much, if at all. The Owls have found their identity. And at several points against Army, it seemed to be working.

“No congrats yet, it’s a win business,” Bloomgren mused after practice. But he knows how close the Owls had come to a defining upset.

Perhaps for the first time, it feels like Rice has become the kind of physical team on both sides of the ball they’ve been working to become since Bloomgren arrived on campus. There is ample room to grow in effectiveness, particularly on offense, but the core components aren’t changing. Finally, this is Rice football.

Get more insight on “The Process” in an exclusive interview with Mike Bloomgren, available in our 2019 Rice Football Season Preview.
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Rice Football: Owls salvage hope from tough loss at Army

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Losing isn’t fun, but although they suffered a tough loss to Army in Week 1, Rice football proved to themselves and the nation they’ve come a long way.

“Defensively I just don’t know if we could have asked for more.” That’s how Mike Bloomgren opened his comments following what can only be labeled a heartbreaking loss on the road to Army in Week 1. The Owls defense had indeed stood tall, limiting a high-powered Army offense to 14 points — the Black Knights had dropped 70 points on crosstown rival Houston in their last game.

That defense, led by Antonio Montero’s 11 tackle performance, helped set the Rice offense up with a one-score game in the fourth quarter. The Owls were able to push the ball into Army territory but failed to convert on a fourth and one.

Seven points from the offense was disappointing, but the end result, a narrow defeat to a quality opponent, gave the entire team a confidence boost. “[We] took a team to deep water,” Bloomgren remarked,  “took a team of that caliber to deep water… and we came up a play short at the end of the day. We’re going to learn from it.”

Montero echoed those sentiments. “If we can hang in with a really good team like Army we can win a lot of games this season and down the road,” he said.

Hope is a dangerous thing. Entering Friday night, that belief was the only thing Bloomgren and his players had to hold onto. Now they have data, real life results of their hope in action. It wasn’t perfect and the taste in their mouthes is decidedly bitter. But something clicked on Friday. The Owls were able to prove to themselves they were different from a year ago.

More: Read more about the Owls’ next opponent, Wake Forest, in our 2019 Season Preview

Bloomgren said it best. “There’s so many things that will be so obvious to so many people that we are no the same team from 2018, we’re just not,” he declared. “The programs different. The way guys are working is different. Everything is just different.”

Following a 2-11 season, different is a very good thing. Thus far in 2019, Rice Football is 0-1 with 11 more opportunities to turn that confidence into reality. The next game can’t come soon enough.

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